MPAA website boarded by pirates

The Motion Picture Association of America’s website was temporarily brought down over the weekend by pirates enraged by an escalation in anti-piracy efforts. MPAA.org and the website of AiPlex Software, a company the MPAA hired to target websites where piracy was rampant, were out of action for much of the day.

“The MPAA is aware of the illegal attack and has taken measures to mitigate the effect of any denial-of-service attack,” said the MPAA spokesman, who confirmed that the trade body was able to get its site back online.

Responsibility for the attacks was claimed on the message-board group 4chan – a supposed hotbed for piracy activity. The offensive seems to have been prompted by a statement AiPlex made earlier in the month regarding the ramping up of its own efforts to counter torrent sites trafficking in copyright-infringing content.